Chinese immigrant and New Hampshire Republican congressional candidate Lily Tang Williams is hoping her newfound fame and support from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday will propel her to a dark horse victory.

Ms. Tang Williams went viral on The heated exchange took place during a debate Thursday when Ms. Goodlander accused Ms. Tang Williams of favoring tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations at the expense of hard-working Americans.

“You are rich,” Ms. Tang Williams says in the clip. “You are worth between 20 and 30 million dollars, how do you know that ordinary people are suffering? Are you going shopping? Go to Walmart? Buy food? I talk to these people.

“And you claim to be a tenant in Nashua a few months ago, come back to run for this open seat with millions of dollars from Washington DC insiders,” Ms. Tang Williams continues. “I don’t have money to run a TV ad, and you pretend to be poor and complain that the rent is too high. You could have kept this apartment for other people to rent in Nashua. Just go back to your $2 million house in Portsmouth.

The clip probably caught fire because of Ms. Goodlander’s comments. power connections. She comes from a wealthy New Hampshire family and is the wife of President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.

Ms. Goodlander is worth the tens of millions of dollars she inherited, including millions in real estate assets. Hillary Clinton gave a reading at her wedding. Several members of the Soros family gave their all to his campaign.

Ms. Tang Williams, by contrast, speaks with a thick Chinese accent and says she fled communist China in 1998 with just $100 in her pocket. She and her husband are now also millionaires, but Ms Tang Williams says she is self-made and the criticism leveled at Ms Goodlander is not about her wealth, but about “hypocrisy”.

“I am a capitalist. I’m not against the rich,” Ms. Tang Williams told the New York Sun. “I like free market capitalism. I respect people who have earned their money and are successful in this country. I just don’t like hypocrisy.

Ms. Tang Williams says that blaming him for inflation or favoring the rich “is just repeating the DNC’s arguments.” A libertarian and Free State Republican, Ms. Tang Williams had to fend off accusations that she was “extreme” throughout the campaign. His direct and pragmatic style has now earned him praise.

Ms. Tang Williams was already widely followed on social networks for her 2nd birthday.^sd Advocating for the amendment, anti-communism and free speech in libertarian and republican circles, but the video catapulted her to a new stratosphere. She went from 80,000 followers on X to almost 200,000 in just two days.

Mr. Kennedy, Vivek Ramaswamy, Riley Gaines and others with large social media accounts posted the debate clip with positive comments about Ms. Tang Williams over the weekend. However, the renewed interest in her is probably coming too late. Ms. Goodlander leads the polls by 11 points, according to the A really clear policy average.

Thursday’s WMUR debate was one of only two debates in the election cycle, and both took place last week. Ms Tang Williams criticized Ms Goodlander for refusing to participate in further debates.

The Goodlander campaign declined to speak with the Sun, but said via email that it had agreed to “several debates scheduled before the general election.”

Ms Tang Williams said Mr Kennedy’s support was an unexpected honour. She says he sent her a message on Sunday on X to call her. In their phone call, Mr. Kennedy said he was impressed by her performance in the debate and wanted to support her. He posted a supportive video that evening that also went viral.

In the video, Mr. Kennedy calls Ms. Goodlander the “queen of the neoconservatives” and castigates her husband as the “architect” of the Ukraine war. “If you want to end foreign wars, if you want to end surveillance and censorship, if you want to restore our constitutional rights, vote for Lily Tang Williams,” Mr. Kennedy said.

Ms Tang Williams says all the attention is being paid to raising her profile, which she hopes will translate into votes.

“I can win tomorrow night,” said Ms. Tang Williams. “But I would tell people that I am already a winner by giving a national boost to my debate. I will continue to fight for ordinary people and for American values. »